Nick Capito: A Great Example

May 04, 2011

May 4, 2011

UC Santa Barbara pitcher Nick Capito straddled
the mound. He looked down to his catcher Marty Mullins. It
was April 24, 2010. Capito was preparing to throw his first pitch
of the fourth inning. Through his first three innings, the Gaucho
lefty had allowed just one hit to Long Beach State and his team was
on top, 3-0.

Capito went into the windup and delivered a change-up on the
outside corner to the 49ers' Devin Lohman. Lohman swung and made
contact. He hit a hard line drive up the middle. The next thing
Capito knew, he was sprawled out on the mound.

Lohman's line drive deflected off the bill of Capito's hat and
then struck him right between the eyes.

"I saw it coming," Capito remembered. "I thought I got a little
bit of my glove on it, I wasn't sure, and then it hit my hat, then
me, and I went down. I didn't go unconscious or anything, I was
just laying there kind of in shock, thinking `Geez, what just
happened? I should have caught that.'"

The next thing Capito remembers is athletic trainer Mike
Martinez and head coach Bob Brontsema
running out to the mound and kneeling next to him.

"I was alright," Capito said. "I was fine. I honestly could have
gotten back on the mound and pitched, but no one was going to let
that happen after a head injury like that."

Capito was taken to a Long Beach hospital where cat scans showed
that the only damage he suffered was cosmetic.

"The next day, my eyes swelled up like a balloon," he said. "But
nothing was broken."

A few months before getting hit in the face with the line drive,
during Christmas break, Capito had to face far greater adversity as
his maternal grandmother and one of his best friends each passed
away.

"Losing my grandmother was very hard," said Capito. "We were
very close."

The death of his friend came in particularly tragic
circumstances.

James Wernke was walking his dog in a rainstorm. They walked
near an overflowing creek and Wernke's dog fell in. Wernke went in
after the dog, slipped, hit his head and lost consciousness. The
authorities said he drowned.

Capito and Wernke had been teammates at Santa Ana College.

"I became really close with him," Capito said. "He redshirted
our sophomore year and then signed a Letter of Intent to go to Long
Beach State, so he would've been there this year. It would've been
fun playing against him."

Indirectly, Capito believes that his friend was there the night
that he was felled by the line drive in Long Beach.

"I had James' initials written on the side of my hat and the
ball hit the hat, probably taking some of the impact, before it hit
me in my forehead," recounted Capito. "I really believe he was
looking out for me. It was at Long Beach State, too, the school
where he was supposed to be going. It was just kind of a surreal
thing."

While the ball hitting the cap most certainly minimized the
physical damage suffered by Capito, there was still the challenge
of actually climbing back onto the mound and pitching again.

"The next couple of days (after the incident) I was just icing
it and trying to recover," he said. "(Pitching coach Tom) Myers
asked me if I'd be able to go next weekend and I said `yeah, of
course.' I was feeling fine and just wanted to get back on the
bump."

When Capito did return, something had definitely changed.

"I felt fine physically, but it was just kind of a mental
thing," he said. "I really wasn't the same after that. I was still
a little shell-shocked the rest of the season. I don't think I
really bounced back too well."

After jumping out to a fast start in 2010, Capito was
up-and-down after the line drive incident. It took him a while, but
he finally started to return to normal during the summer when he
played for the Wisconsin Woodchucks in the Northwoods League.

"It was kind of a hard thing to get over," Capito said. "It took
me about a month. I went to play summer ball in June and started to
feel better. They use wood bats out there and that didn't scare me
as much as metal bats, or whatever they are now. That kind of put
some ease in the back of my mind about the balls coming off the
bat."

While Capito started progressing from the moment he got to
Wisconsin, there was still one thing he had to overcome: another
ball hit back up the middle.

"Last summer, I remember having my first comebacker and it was
just a soft ground ball," he recalled. "I jumped back and flinched
pretty bad, but I got the ball and ran it over to first, and I was
like `okay, well that was my first one and there will probably be
more, so you better be ready.'"

Capito enjoyed, and truly benefitted from, his summer season in
Wisconsin. He pitched well, helped the Woodchucks get within one
game of playing for the league championship, learned a new pitch (a
two-seam sinker) and really re-focused himself for the 2011 UCSB
season.

"I came back during the fall with a vengeance," said Capito, who
also bounced back from surgery to his left elbow while pitching at
La Quinta High School. "I just wanted to win, I wanted us to have a
good season and I was willing to do whatever role I was given."

While Capito was primarily a starter as a junior in 2010, he has
been primarily a reliever in 2011. In fact, entering the first
weekend in May, the Whittier, Calif., native had made 19
appearances on the season, 17 out of the bullpen. He did, however,
start - and win - a May 1 game at UC Riverside.

Capito has adapted to his role out of the bullpen, but it isn't
out of the question that he could re-enter the rotation on a
regular basis. Either way, he's at ease.

"I've become accustomed to `whatever happens, happens,'" said
the art history major. "I'm ready for anything. I've never really
pitched exclusively out of the bullpen before, and the beginning of
the season, I thought, was a great test to show that I can fill
whatever role I need to fill."

Capito is 4-2 and tied for the team-lead in wins. His 3.20 ERA
is the lowest among all pitchers who have tossed at least 45
innings and he has allowed just 34 hits in his 45 innings.

"I feel I've helped the team out of the bullpen and as a
starter," Capito said. "It's been pretty topsy-turvy, but whatever
the situation is, I'm basically just trying to get guys out. It's
all the same. Pitching is pitching. People want to talk about
pressure situations, but I just come in and try to get guys out and
do my job."

What are your favorite things to do when you're not playing
baseball?I like to watch baseball a lot, I'm a huge Dodgers fan. When
baseball's not in season, I like to play video games if I don't
have schoolwork to do. That's about it. I like playing a lot of Rec
sports--baseball, football with my buddies whenever I get a chance.
Not too exciting, I don't surf or anything. I don't know how to do
anything with a board.

If you were on a deserted island and could bring only three
things, what would they be?I'd probably bring my Ipod Touch, some music because it'd get
pretty lonely out there, some boxes of food, I don't like cooking
that much, so some microwaveable stuff if there was a microwave,
and probably some books--I do like to read.

What is your favorite class you've taken at UCSB?

I've taken a couple I've liked a lot. Probably Fall quarter
it was a modern art history class with Professor Monahan. I think
it was Art History 119F. That was a really cool class, it was art
from after WWII up until today, so it was a lot of the modern stuff
that I had never really studied that much.

Do you have any role models?Yeah, Andre Either. Like I said, I'm a big time Dodgers fan.
He's the kind of guy that I try to model myself after. He has a
quiet confidence about him, I don't think he's a very vocal leader,
but he walks around with his shoulders and head held high.
Everything he does you see the confidence in him. He's not one of
those guys who gets 'rah rah', and that's not me. I try to act like
I've been there before, done that, that kind of mentality. So he's
definitely one of my role models.

What's the best part about waking up in Santa Barbara every
day?The beach absolutely. The house I live in, I love it. I live
with Greg, Jesse, Connor, Beck, and Bryce Tafelski,
and that's really fun living with all those guys. We live on
beachside on DP and every morning we can walk out on that balcony
and just look at the ocean, and that's a nice feeling. Probably
never going to be able to do that, live like this again, so enjoy
it while it lasts.

What's your favorite TV show?Seinfeld. It's my all time favorite. I've seen almost every
one, but every once in a while in the reruns there's some I've
never seen. But it's a funny, funny show.

What will you miss most about life at UCSB after you
graduate?The baseball team. I really enjoy playing with all these guys.
This is one of the first teams that I've played on where I really
get along with all the guys on the team. At my JC, there were
cliques and it was a commuter school so everyone drives from all
over the place, and here everyone lives together, which is a really
cool thing and that is something I'm going to miss too. It's just
so convenient to hang out with them, but I'm really going to miss
playing with all these guys, they're a really good group of
guys.

What actor would play you in a movie about your life?I don't know. I've been told by C.J. Wilson, he's a pitcher
from the Rangers who went to Santa Ana, that I looked like John
Stamos, with the hair.

Your favorite sports team is the Dodgers, so that's an easy one.
What is your favorite movie?I have a lot. My favorite one is Inception. I know it recently
came out but I love those kinds of movies. I have a big imagination
so I like those kinds.

Do you have any pre-game rituals?Yeah, I do. They vary from if I start or not. Starting, I like
to be clean-shaven, not the day of but I'll do it a day or two
before. And then before the game I'll listen to my Ipod and right
before I put my spikes on I like to listen to a certain song that
gets me pumped up and in the mindset. When I go out there I go
through the same stretching routine and do a couple sprints.
Nothing too fancy, but it just helps to have a routine.

IWho is your favorite musical artist or band?My favorite musical artist is Jack White and all the White
Stripes. He's one of the great musicians I feel like of this
current time. I'm a big rock fan, so classic rock and any type of
modern rock that's good, I favor. Foo Fighters, and stuff like
that.

What's your favorite spot on campus?I like Sands, or Campus Point. A lot of times we'll run as the
pitching staff we'll run to Campus Point from the field and we'll
take in the ocean. Sometimes we'll jump in the ocean, if its hot,
and then run back. Campus Point is nice to hear the ocean and
meditate a little bit.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?I don't know, probably Malibu. Nice houses right by the beach,
LA area. It's a really nice area, I'd love to live there.

What is your favorite UCSB sport to watch besides baseball?Probably the ,en's basketball team. They really get after it.
Women's soccer too. The Men's soccer games are pretty fun to go to
too.

Who is your favorite author and what is your favorite book?A lot of people are probably going to hate me, but Dan Brown.
A lot of people don't think he's that great of an author, but I
like the Da Vinci Code, that book was really good.

What is one thing about you that most people do not know?I feel like a lot of people know what kind of person I am.
Aside from guys on the baseball team, being left handed--a lot of
people don't know that.

Do you have a motto that you live by or some words that someone
said to you at some point that you think about a lot?Not really a motto, just kind of live life like you got
nothing to lose. Especially with my buddy passing away, I just put
everything out there every time I step on to the field. You never
know when it could be my last day playing tomorrow, so I just got
to have fun playing the game.

In one word how would you describe UCSB Baseball?Not frustrating, but another word for interesting. It's
unique. We'll have our good days, we'll have our bad days, but in
the end we're all just having a good time out there. Its kind of
been a tough season so far, we're at .500 right now, so we feel
that we're more than adequate to be a better than .500 club, so
it's unique.

What are your goals once baseball is over, like once you have to
be a career person?I don't know. I really want to pursue baseball as long as I
can. But once that's all done, I really want to be a baseball
coach. I want to start out at the high school level or something,
but I eventually want to be a college head coach, depending on the
situation, but I feel like the guys that I've played for, I played
for Dave Demarest at my high school, he's one of the most renown
coaches in high school baseball. And then Don Sneddon at my JC,
he's one of the winningest coaches on the JC level, and then Coach
Brontsema who's been around for over thirty years. He knows his
stuff. I feel like I've learned something from each of them, which
is a good thing because if you feel like you know the game inside
and out you're wrong. There's always something new to learn, and I
feel like every level I've gone to I've learned something new from
everyone. I've been able to have some great coaches so I've been
pretty fortunate to be in some good situations.

If you had a book written about your life, what would the title
be?Probably The Kid Who's Overcome.

Do you have any nicknames?Just some based on my last name. Cap. Cappy. I get the lefty,
but it's a lot of just Capito, no big nicknames.